Has Mike Barnicle called Sarah Palin stupid? Seems that way. In a Huffington Post column that Mika Brzezinski read on today's Morning Joe, Barnicle, referring to Palin, wrote of the:

preposterous pronouncements of a woman whose candidacy is an insult to intelligence.

Let's deconstruct. The normal formulation is an "insult to our intelligence," used to describe an assertion that is obviously unbelievable. For example, you might say Barack Obama insulted our intelligence when he claimed against all evidence during this week's debate that his only tie to ACORN is his past representation of the group in a lawsuit. But when Barnicle writes that Sarah Palin's candidacy is an insult not to "our" intelligence, but to intelligence itself, it's hard to read that other than as suggesting Palin is something other than smart. Throw in his reference to "preposterous pronouncements" and there's little doubt that the person Barnicle intended to insult is Palin herself. Mika seemed to acknowledge that Barnicle meant to slur Sarah, observing, after reading that last line, "that's rough stuff."

I'd say that a woman who had ability to take on and defeat an entrenched old-boy network in her home state, and the moral intelligence to make the family decisions she has, is plenty smart. As Forest Gump said, Mike: stupid is as stupid does.

Note: If the Morning Joe folks look cold, it's because they're sitting on an outdoor set in windswept Hyannisport, Massachusetts the morning after attending last night's game at Fenway, whose result will be quickly forgotten once the Rays set things right down in Tampa.